Probe into detained opposition almost complete -Sudan’s JM
November 5, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan said it had almost completed investigations into 25 detained opposition figures accused of a coup attempt, the state news agency said.
“The investigation into the sabotage attempt is almost finished,” Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi told SUNA. He said once the file was in order and back from the courts to the Justice Ministry, it would take more than a week to decide whether to press “final charges”.
“After it has been assessed there are two paths of action — either press final charges … or drop the accusations against those where there is no evidence they have committed a criminal act,” he added.
Two of the most prominent political detainees, Mubarak al-Fadil and Ali Mahmoud Hassanein, both from prominent opposition parties, said they would begin a hunger strike on Wednesday until they were brought before a just court or were released.
Sudan’s Court of Appeal rejected a request to release them saying charges had been brought against those detained. However the government has declined to specify what those charges are, nor have the accused, defence lawyers or public been informed that there are any.
Those detained include retired army, security and police officers and other opposition politicians. Rights group Amnesty International said some of them had been tortured, a charge the government strenuously denies.
The U.N. rapporteur for human rights, Sima Samar, expressed concern at the arrests ahead of Sudan’s first democratic elections in more than two decades due by 2009.
She urged the government to work with more transparency on the arrests. Sudan expelled a European and Canadian diplomat for writing to the head of security enquiring about the status of Hassanein.
(Reuters)